Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 130 /Wednesday, July 8, 1998 / Notices 36933

Fairfax Drive, Room 700, Arlington,

Virginia 22203. Phone: (703/358–2104);

FAX: (703/358–2281).

Dated: July 2, 1998.

MaryEllen Amtower,

Acting Chief, Branch of Permits, Office of

Management Authority.

[FR Doc. 98–18090 Filed 7–7–98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4310–55–P

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Geological Survey

Federal Geographic Data Committee

(FGDC); Public Comment on the

Proposal To Develop the ‘‘NSDI

Framework Road Data Model

Standard’’ as a Federal Geographic

Data Committee Standard

ACTION: Notice; Request for comments.

SUMMARY: The FGDC is soliciting public

comments on the proposal to develop a

‘‘NSDI Framework Road Data Model

Standard.’’ If the proposal is approved,

the standard will be developed

following the FGDC standards

development and approval process and

will be considered for adoption by the

FGDC.

In its assigned federal leadership role

in the development of the National

Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), the

Committee recognizes that FGDC

standards must also meet the needs and

recognize the views of State and local

governments, academia, industry, and

the public. The purpose of this notice is

to solicit such views. The FGDC invites

the community to review the proposal

and comment on the objectives, scope,

approach, and usability of the proposed

standard; identify existing related

standards; and indicate their interest in

participating in the development of the

standard.

DATES: Comments must be received on

or before July 25, 1998.

CONTACT AND ADDRESSES: Comments

may be submitted via Internet mail or by

submitting electronic copy on diskette.

Send comments via internet to: gdcrdmod@www.fgdc.gov.

A soft copy version, on a 3.5 x 3.5

diskette in WordPerfect 5.0 or 6.0/6.1

format, along with one hardcopy version

of the comments may be sent to the

FGDC Secretariat (attn: Jennifer Fox) at

U.S. Geological Survey, 590 National

Center, 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive,

Reston, Virginia, 20192.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Following

is the complete proposal for the ‘‘NSDI

Framework Road Data Model Standard’’.

Project Title: NSDI Framework Road

Data Model Standard

Submitting Organization: FGDC Ground

Transportation Subcommittee

Point of Contact: Bruce D. Spear, U.S.

Department of Transportation, Bureau

of Transportation Statistics (BTS),

(202) 366–8870, bruce.spear@bts.gov

Objectives

To provide a logical data model for

identifying unique road segments which

are independent of cartographic or

analytic network representation. These

road segments will form the basis for

maintenance of NSDI framework road

data (through transactions or other

means), and for establishing links

among road segments and attribute data.

Scope

In accordance with the FGDC

Standards Reference Model, the NSDI

Framework Road Data Model is being

proposed under the classification of a

data content standard. However, it also

includes mandatory standards for

assigning and reporting identification

codes as well as voluntary guidelines for

data collection under the classification

of a process standard.

This standard will specify a

conceptual model for identifying

physical road segments that are

temporally stable and independent of

any cartographic representation, scale,

level of detail or network application,

and a process for combining the road

segments to create topologically

connected analytical networks. The

model will include a set of locational

descriptors for each road segment

included in the NSDI framework road

layer, and a format for a unique

identification code to be assigned to

each identified segment. The standard

will also specify a process for assigning,

modifying and recording road segment

identification codes.

Guidelines for selecting and locating

the end points of appropriate road

segments will be included as an

informative appendix. The user of the

standard does not have to follow the

guidelines to be in conformance with

the standard.

The basic road data model can be

extended to cover other transportation

networks including railroads,

commercial waterways, pipelines, and

public transit guideways. Other network

layers may require different process

standards for assigning and recording

identification codes. These additional

process standards are not included as

part of this initial standard.

Justification/Benefits

There are currently no national

standards for identifying, segmenting, or

representing road segments in digital

geo-spatial databases. Database

developers segment road networks to

satisfy their specific application needs;

however, the specific segmentation

scheme may not be appropriate for other

applications. Furthermore, there is no

standard approach for documenting the

relationship between a digitized road

segment and the physical road feature

that it represents. Consequently, the

exchange of attribute information

between two different road databases

representing the same geographic area is

difficult, time consuming and error

prone.

A national standard for identifying

and documenting road segments will

facilitate data exchange among different

users by providing well defined,

common reference segments that are

tied to the physical road feature, rather

than to any cartographic or network

abstraction of that feature. Furthermore,

the proposed standard road data model

will allow users to create customized

topological networks from the reference

segments without modifying the

properties of the reference segments

themselves. This will facilitate

transactional updates to framework road

databases by allowing new road features

to be added without changing existing

road segments.

Development Approach

A Road Data Model Team will be

assembled to review the technical

development of the standard and to

provide appropriate outreach to the

transportation community. (See

POTENTIAL PARTICIPANTS, below.)

An initial draft of the road data model

will be prepared under contract, funded

by BTS (in progress). The initial draft

will be based, in large part, on the

preliminary road data models emerging

from the NSDI Framework Road Data

Modeling Workshop, held at

Wrightsville Beach, NC, in December

1997. These preliminary data models

are compatible with the generic linear

data model developed under the

National Cooperative Highway Research

Program (NCHRP) Project 20–27.

The initial draft will be reviewed by

the Road Data Model Team and revised

based on concerns and

recommendations expressed by team

members. Depending on the nature of

the review comments, one or more

meetings may be convened to resolve

differences among the team. Team

members will also be responsible for

informing their constituencies about the

road data model standard and for

collecting and summarizing the

requirements of their respective

stakeholders groups.
36934 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 130 /Wednesday, July 8, 1998 / Notices

The road data model development

effort will be closely coordinated with

NCHRP Project 20–27 (Phase 3), which

focuses in the development of

implementation guidelines for

multimodal transportation location

reference systems. It will also provide a

focus for possible follow-up workshops

to Wrightsville Beach.

Once there is general agreement

among the Road Data Model Team that

the model meets agreed-upon

requirements, the model will be

submitted for formal public review

through the FGDC’s Standards

Development Process.

Development and Completion Schedule

• Solicitation and selection of Road

Data Model Team—May 1998.

• Initial draft of road data model by

BTS contractor—June 1998.

• Review and revisions to road data

model—summer and fall 1998.

• At least one meeting of the full team

will take place after the initial road data

model has been delivered and

distributed to team members.

• Team members will be responsible

for informing and soliciting feedback

from their constituencies about the

standards development effort through

presentations at annual meetings,

articles in newsletters, etc.

• The road data model will be

prototyped on one or more road

databases to assess implementation and

maintenance issues, requirements for

additional tools, etc.

• Revised draft of road data model

prepared by BTS contractor and

approved by majority of road data

model team—December 1998

• Road Data Model Standard

submitted for public review through

FGDC—January 1999

• Informational presentations on road

data model to be made at major

transportation and GIS conferences,

including TRB, GIS–T Symposium, etc.

• Final Road Data Model Standard

approved as FGDC standard—June 1999.

Resources Required

Funding support for contractor to

prepare initial road data model and to

revise model in response to review

comments will be borne by the Bureau

of Transportation Statistics.

Participation on the Road Data Model

Team will be on a voluntary basis. Time

spent by team members to familiarize

themselves with the NSDI framework

and linear data models, review draft

documents, participate in team

meetings, and serve as liaison to their

respective constituencies will be borne

by each member’s agency or

organization. Some additional FGDC

funding may be needed to support travel

to meetings for some team members.

Potential Participants

Team members will include

representatives from the FGDC Ground

Transportation Subcommittee, Facilities

Working Group, Base Cartographic

Subcommittee, Cultural and

Demographic Subcommittee, and

Framework Focus Group. Additional

representation will be sought from key

transportation and spatial data

stakeholders, including the

Transportation Research Board (TRB)

GIS–T Task Force, the Intelligent

Transportation Systems (ITS) standards

working group, the American

Association of State Highway and

Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the

Open GIS Consortium (OGC)

Transportation Work Group, NSGIC,

NaCO, and other interested

stakeholders.

Related Standards

There are a number of standards for

roads and other transportation currently

being promulgated by different

stakeholders. In general these standards

have been designed to meet the specific

requirements of the stakeholder groups

sponsoring their development, and do

not generally satisfy the basic NSDI

requirements for database sharing and

transactional updating. Nevertheless,

these standards will be investigated as

part of this development effort to

determine commonalities and

opportunities for integration.

The ITS Standards and Protocol

Subcommittee has proposed adoption of

the Geographic Data Files (GDF) as its

standard for digital road databases. This

standard does not meet all of the

requirements of the broader GIS for

transportation (GIS–T) community,

particularly with respect to location

referencing.

The DIGEST/Vector Product Format

standard is an interchange standard for

spatial data used by the U.S.

Department of Defense, NATO, and the

Transportation Association of Canada.

DIGEST/VPF. This standard, like GDF

does not meet all of the requirements of

the GIS–T community.

A draft Transportation Network

Profile (TNP) was developed for the

Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS)

several years ago, but was never

submitted for formal adoption due to a

number of unresolved issues. Adoption

of a standard road data model may help

resolve many of these outstanding

issues, and lead to resumption of the

SDTS TNP development.

A Ground Transportation Data

Content Standard is being proposed to

provide a common set of entity/

attribute/domain definitions for

transportation features. These two

efforts will be closely coordinated, and

the road data model will provide the

foundation on which transportation

features in the content standard will be

defined.

ITS is also proposing the

establishment of a national linear

datum, consisting of well defined and

accurately located control points from

which linear measurements can be

made along a road segment. The

proposed road data model is compatible

with the ITS linear datum. Every effort

will be made during the development of

the road data model to maintain this

compatibility so that framework road

segments can fully utilize the linear

datum, if it is actually implemented.

Other Targeted Authorization Bodies

None at this time. However,

depending on the acceptance of the

proposed road data model by the

transportation community, it may be

appropriate to submit it to ANSI and

ISO at a later date.

Dated: June 29, 1998.

Richard E. Witmer,

Chief, National Mapping Division.

[FR Doc. 98–18071 Filed 7–7–98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4310–Y7–M

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Indian Affairs

Information Collection Submitted to

the Office of Management and Budget

for Review Under the Paperwork

Reduction Act

AGENCY: Bureau of Indian Affairs,

Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

SUMMARY: This notice announces that

the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in

accordance with the Paperwork

Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A))

is soliciting comments on the proposed

information collection for the Housing

Improvement Program.

DATES: The agency must receive

comments on or before September 8,

1998.

ADDRESSES: Mail comments and

suggestions on the requirements to Mrs.

June Henkel, Bureau of Indian Affairs,

Office of Tribal Services, 1849 C Street,

NW, MS–4603–MIB, Washington, DC

20240. Telephone (202) 208–3667.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Copies of the documents contained in

the information collection request may